


Let's Hold More Chat

by heresy_in_fair



Category: Love's Labour's Lost - Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE William - Works
Genre: Friendship, No Plot/Plotless, No Romance, Pre-Canon, i just love the LLL girls so this is them talking, mention of past flirting i guess and implications of future relationships but that's all, rosaline is the mom friend, rosaline's pov, they're really just chatting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24815935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heresy_in_fair/pseuds/heresy_in_fair
Summary: The Princess of France debates going on a diplomatic mission to Navarre, and ultimately decides to do so thanks to the support and banter of Rosaline, Katherine, and Maria.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Let's Hold More Chat

**Author's Note:**

> i have never written fanfiction before but i was suddenly seized with the urge to write a scene of the LLL girls just chatting and being their amazing selves, so that's what this is! the princess of france has no real name that we know of and i didn't make one up for her because... well, because unfortunately, i am cursed with being fundamentally lazy, and thinking of a name requires too much effort.  
> also, the title is a line from the play! it does not quite fit but it's the best i could do.

“It’s only a short diplomatic trip, Cess. We’ll be back before you know it.” Rosaline hated to be the one to break the silence that had descended over her friends, but she couldn’t let the Princess sit with her own thoughts for any longer.

“Why would he send me off when he’s this sick, though?” the Princess groaned, swiping her hand across her face as she leaned back on her bed. Maria and Katherine regarded her from their perch on the nearby sofa, their dresses poofed up around their folded legs. Maria, her brow creased, opened her mouth as if to say something soothing, but closed it again. Rosaline sighed.

“You know he doesn’t like you seeing him in pain,” she offered. The Princess scoffed. “No, really! He’s just trying to protect you.” Tears welled up in Cess’ eyes. Rosaline watched her blink them back furiously, sliding over to put an arm around the younger girl’s shoulders. The Princess laughed, a low and hollow sound that reminded Rosaline once again why she would do anything for these three girls.

“I don’t need him to protect me! I’m a legal adult now, and if things continue how they are, then he won’t be around much longer, and I’ll have to take the throne, and then it’ll all be a mess because I don’t know how to do anything, and-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Rosaline said, “You may be a legal adult, but cut yourself some slack, Cess. Being nineteen doesn’t suddenly make you all-knowing and capable. Believe me. Nineteen is one of the least responsible ages,” she added, putting on the voice of the Princess’ least favorite tutor.

Cess smacked her in the chest with an ornately embroidered pillow. “Oh, shut it!”

“Being twenty-three doesn’t make you all-knowing and capable, either, Ros,” Katherine piped up from across the room. Rosaline leveled a glare at her before turning her gaze back to the Princess.

“Besides,” Rosaline continued, “What could be better for your growth as a world leader than a diplomatic mission to get money from some entitled rich boys?”

The Princess stifled a laugh. “I don’t think the King of Navarre would like that description very much.”

“Am I wrong, though?” Rosaline asked mischievously. “God, I fantasize every day about the moment when I get to see Berowne again and lecture some sense into him… the things that man said at Brabant! Ugh.” 

“You talk about him an awful lot for someone you met once and claim to hate,” Maria said softly. Katherine giggled at Maria’s gentle teasing and looked at Rosaline expectantly.

“I mean, no one’s denying he was hot!” she said, throwing her hands up in the air defensively. “His personality just made me want to hurl myself out the window of the ballroom as fast as possible, broken glass be damned.”

“I would have paid so much money to see you literally run away from one of the King of Navarre’s favorites,” Katherine crowed. “The look on his face would be priceless!”  
The Princess chuckled lightly and shifted out from under Rosaline’s arm as she stood up from the bed. The other three looked over at her. “Well, perhaps you’ll have the chance this weekend.”

Maria beamed at her. “You mean we’re going?” 

Cess nodded, smiling at Maria’s enthusiasm. “Yes. I think it’s for the best. I could use a little time away from everything going on here, at the least. I’m tired of constantly fending off press trying to talk to my father, and… yeah. We’re going.”

Katherine leaped off the sofa, sending Maria sliding to the floor in a whirl of wide skirts and pale mint sleeves. Katherine stopped in her tracks on the way to the Princess’ closet, looking back at Maria. The latter shoved her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and stood up, indignantly fussing with her dress and murmuring something under her breath about entitled rich girls. Katherine caught the end of her sentence and looked back.

“Oh, don’t start, darling. You have just as much money as the rest of us.”

“That’s not techn-”

“Okay, okay, but when all of our families are millionaires it’s a bit of a stretch to use a few millions’ worth of difference to explain my actions,” Katherine interrupted. “Anyway, Cess, we need to pick out a wardrobe for you!”

The Princess sighed. “I’d love to, Katherine, really, but I feel like maybe we should focus on the politics of this before-”

“Oh, no. Listen, you march in, hand them a paper saying ‘Give us the money you owe us,’ they waffle about for a few hours because they’re idiots, they eventually pay up, the end.” Rosaline rolled her eyes’ at Katherine’s oversimplification of their goals, but had to admit that from what she’d heard, it didn’t sound like something that required a genius to carry out.

“It’s fine, Cess. I’ll go over it with you tonight, but go on and pack now. I know you’re itching to pick out the perfect fan to match that dress you got last month.” Rosaline smiled at the Princess, wishing once again that she would reveal her real name. Ever since the two had first met five years prior, Cess had refused to divulge her given name to anyone. Rosaline assumed her father knew, and perhaps a few of the palace staff who had been around the longest, but that was about it. The people of France had long since given up on figuring out the Princess’ real name; whatever it was, she clearly didn’t want it known, and those closest to her just used “Cess”, or “Princess” if she needed a stern talking-to.

The Princess hugged Rosaline, jolting her out of her reverie. “Thanks, Ros!” she said, her tone a bit too bright for it to be completely genuine. She floated over to Katherine, who was already engrossed in examining the huge closet full of dresses, and started going through them with her. 

Maria sidled up to Rosaline. “She still doesn’t want to go, does she?” she asked. Rosaline looked at Maria, the youngest of their group at 17 years old. She put her arm around her and squeezed comfortingly. Rosaline wondered, not for the first time, how she had ended up becoming not only a friend but also a big sister and a mother to all these girls.

“I don’t think so,” Rosaline told her quietly. “But she’s probably accepted that she has no other choice. And it will hopefully help her get her mind off of… well, everything.”   
Maria nodded. “I, for one, would like to see you give Berowne a piece of your mind. Longaville, too, now that I come to think of it.”

“I thought you liked Longaville when you met him in Perigort?”

“Eh. I mean, he was better at holding a conversation than the rest of the stuffy old people at that wedding. But the longer I think about it, the less I like him.”

Rosaline chuckled. “That’s a lot of people you’re going to meet, Maria. Not everyone has my shrewd wit and devastating charm.”

“Please don’t remind me of that, Ros, it was embarrassing enough the morning after!”

Rosaline laughed, a loud sound that burst out from deep in her chest. The year before, they had all gotten drunk on the Princess’ birthday, leading to Maria awkwardly trying to flirt with Rosaline, along with a few broken vases in the hallways leading to their rooms. Maria, being quite the reader, had also called Rosaline “Cosette” for the majority of the night, and refused to believe the girls when they told her Cosette was fictional. All in all, it led to a rather awkward recap the following morning. Rosaline didn’t think she had seen Maria blush so vividly since. 

“It’s not that I wasn’t flattered, it’s just that you’re way too young for me, Maria,” Rosaline replied, and she felt Maria heave a dramatic sigh beside her. 

“I know that! But, in my defense, I had never been drunk before.” 

Rosaline arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Don’t really me! Yes, really! I was sixteen!” Maria jabbed her in the ribs. “Besides, it’s not like I had many options. The only people I actually hang out with are you three, and the only other people we ever meet are annoying boys.”

“True, but I’m also bisexual and I didn’t feel the need-”

“I hate you.”

“I know!” Rosaline replied brightly, patting Maria on the head and moving to join the Princess and Katherine, who had already laid out a fair number of dresses on the bed. The Princess looked up at her.

“Was Maria complaining about the lack of a dating pool again?” she inquired, eyes sparkling. Rosaline felt relieved that she seemed to have regained some of her good humor.

“Oh, always,” she said, picking up one of the dresses and moving back towards the closet. “But, you know, maybe she’ll find someone in Navarre!” Maria scoffed.

“Hey, what’s wrong with that dress?” Katherine demanded.

“Well, one, it’s ugly. Two, no offense, Princess, but green isn’t really your color.”

“Oh, since when do you care about fashion?” Katherine asked, astonished.

“It’s hard not to when your every word is about how good you look in whatever outfit you’ve picked out,” Rosaline fired back. Katherine smiled and laid a hand over her heart in mock gratitude. Rosaline flipped her off behind her back as she entered the closet and put the forest green gown back where it belonged: permanently in storage.

“Now then, ladies, let’s try to keep it civil,” the Princess said, but she was holding back a laugh. “We don’t want anything brewing if we’re all going to be stuck in a carriage to Navarre tomorrow.”

The girls sobered up at the mention of their plans, and Rosaline stilled at the thought that this might be the last time they travelled somewhere as equals - at least, as close to equals as they would ever be. For all Rosaline knew, the Princess could be the Queen of France by the time they returned. Rosaline shook her head, pushing away the thoughts flooding her brain, and went over to the Princess.

“Cess, it’s getting kind of late. Why don’t you and Katherine finish up here. I’ll grab the missive and head over to my room, and we’ll go over it in a few, ‘kay?” Rosaline grabbed the packet off the Princess’ table and headed out the door. As it closed behind her, she heard Katherine quip “Yes, mom,” followed by the sound of the other two giggling softly. A quiet grin spread across Rosaline’s face. Befriending the Princess of France and later meeting Maria and Katherine hadn’t exactly been the plan when she first visited the palace, but she was glad that they had somehow all found each other. 

Throwing a last fond smile in the direction of the doorway, Rosaline headed down the hall to her bedroom, confident in the knowledge that no matter what happened in Navarre, the four of them would always have each other.

**Author's Note:**

> woo hoo! if you made it to the end of this fic, i am deeply grateful to you! i am thinking about writing another similar, pre-play fic of the girls camping, but i have no discipline, so we shall see. thank you again for reading!!


End file.
